First fight at 40 will help Pat Miletich determine what he has left

http://mmajunkie.comThis fight is not part of a grand plan to recapture the glory days or launch a Rocky-like comeback.

At 40 years of age and almost an equal number of bouts behind him, Pat Miletich knows he’s at a point in his fighting career where he needs to pick his spots and take fights that make sense. Headlining Adrenaline MMA’s second show Thursday in Moline, Ill., is one of those opportunities.

“I wanted to make sure to fight in front of my hometown crowd at least one more time,” Miletich (28-7-2) told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “And it’s also good to fight for (Adrenaline promoter) Monte Cox. That’s where I started my career. Now that he’s got Adrenaline up and going, I wanted to help with that. Without me fighting on the card, it was unlikely they were going to do a card here in the Quad Cities. It kind of all just came together.”

While the fight card itself might have come together nicely, the same couldn’t be said for Miletich’s training – at least not at the outset. He was two years removed from his last fight when he started his two-month preparation to face Thomas Denny at 170 pounds, and Miletich admits it has been challenging getting back into the flow of rigorous training.

“It definitely has,” he said. “Two weeks in to the eight-week process where I was exhausted and beat up, I thought, ‘Man, this is going to be tough. I just need to get over this hump.’ Once I got past that two- or three-day period where my fatigue caught up to me, my endurance and strength just kind of took off like a rocket. It’s been good to be in shape like I was 10 years ago.”

While the Miletich name has been a well-recognized brand in the world of MMA, the last couple of years have been a period of transition for one of the first masters of the sport in the U.S. and the training camp that bears the name of the UFC’s first welterweight champ. Earlier this decade, Miletich Fighting Systems was a championship machine, producing a number of titleholders, including former UFC champions Matt Hughes, Jens Pulver, Tim Sylvia and International Fight League heavyweight champion Ben Rothwell. Several other top-flight fighters, such as Spencer Fisher, Robbie Lawler and Jeremy Horn also trained at MFS.

Of those fighters, only Sylvia and Rothwell remain under Miletich’s guidance, but the exodus is not something on which Miletich dwells. A number of other young fighters, standouts such as L.C. Davis, Ryan McGivern and Mike Ciesnolevicz, have injected new life into the gym, and the camp’s elder statesman is looking forward to competing on the same card with them when he takes on another veteran in Denny (26-17).

“He’s a pretty well-rounded guy,” said Miletich in sizing up “The Wildman.” “He’s not afraid to get after it and throw a lot of elbows, a lot of hands, a lot of kicks. He likes to shoot takedowns after throwing combinations. Even though I’m a little older than he is, I think that I’m still a little better overall in all of those areas. I think I’m probably the favorite in this fight, but upsets happen all the time in this sport, so I’m pretty cautious with Thomas.”

Miletich’s most recent bout – a first-round submission loss to Renzo Gracie in September 2006 in an IFL superfight – was his first action in more than four years. Given those long stretches of inactivity, it’s fair to label Miletich a semi-retired fighter. And, he will let the outcome of the bout with Denny determine if he’ll pursue another fight near term.

“We’ll see what happens when I wake up in the morning and see how ugly I am or how pretty I am,” said Miletich, who is not looking beyond Dec. 11, but would welcome a rematch with Gracie. “That will tell me what I should do.

“Obviously, when I was in my prime when I was in my late 20s, early 30s, I felt, basically, invincible. But I’m a lot smarter now. It’s just a matter of becoming smarter about how you fight. My mentality is that if George Foreman and Randy Couture can do it, why can’t I?”

Steve Sievert is the lead staff writer and business columnist for MMAjunkie.com. He is also the former MMA beat writer and lead blogger for the Houston Chronicle.

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